ConJlruBHon of the He ate ns* 2 1 (} 
common telefcope, he begins to fufpeCt that all the milkinefs 
of the bright path which furrounds the fphere may be owing 
to ftars. He perceives a few clufters of them in various parts 
of the heavens, and finds alfo that there ate a kind of nebu- 
lous patches ; but hill his views are not extended fo far as to 
reach to the end of the ftratum in which he is fituated, fo that 
lie looks upon thefe patches as belonging to that fyftem which 
to him feems to comprehend" every celeftial objeCt. He now 
increafes his power of vifon, and, applying himfelf to a clofe 
obfervation, finds that the milky way is indeed no other than a 
collection of very fmall ftars. He perceives that thofe objeCts 
which had been called nebulse are evidently nothing but clutters 
of ftars. He finds their number increafe upon him, and when 
he refolves one nebula into ftars he difcovers ten new ones 
which he cannot refolve, He then forms the idea of immenfe 
ftrata of fixed ftars, of clufters of ftars and of nebulae (<3 ) ; till, 
going on with fuch interefting obfervations, he now perceives 
that all thefe appearances muft naturally arife from the con- 
fined fituation in which we are placed. Confined it mayjuftly 
be called* though in no lefs a fpace than what before appeared 
to be the whole region of the fixed ftars \ but which now has 
afiumed the fhape of a crookedly branching nebula ; not, in- 
deed* one of the leaf!, but perhaps very far from being the 
moft confiderable of thofe numberlefs clufters that enter into 
the conftruCtion of the heavens. 
Refitlt of QbfervationSi, 
1 fhall now endeavour to fhew, that the theoretical view of 
the iyftem of the univerfe* which has been expofed In the 
{a) See a former paper on the Conftru&ion of the Heavens. 
F f a fore- 
